Construction equipment items such as cranes and excavators are typically delivered to a job site (e.g., a construction site) in multiple pieces or components. Often a construction equipment item is so specialized and/or expensive, that a contractor rents it for a particular use or job, and thus the construction equipment is supplied from a rental company, otherwise known as a “rental yard.” Regardless of the source, many of these items of construction equipment, and components thereof, are expensive and complex and require periodic inspection and maintenance to be safely (and in some instances legally) assembled and operated.
Cranes in particular are expensive and complex to operate and maintain, and as such are often used heavily on construction sites in order to minimize the time of use and there for the cost of using the crane. This is especially the case with rented cranes. However, due to the expense of downtime for inspection and maintenance, cranes are often inadequately inspected and/or maintained. Shoddy maintenance, improper maintenance, infrequent maintenance, improper inspection, infrequent inspection, lack of inspection, lack of inspectors, overworked inspectors, and poor/incorrect documentation of required inspections are but a handful of contributors to the many catastrophic and often deadly crane collapses and accidents that occur yearly on construction job sites and other locations where cranes are used.